


Holding hands in space

by intravenusann



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi, OT3, Space Opera, jedistormpilot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2016-01-25
Packaged: 2018-05-15 08:33:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5778901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intravenusann/pseuds/intravenusann
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>None of them has done anything like this before, but they can't help it. Rey loves Finn. Poe loves Finn. They fall in love with each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Wake up

**Author's Note:**

> The world needed more fic of this OT3. They make my heart hurt so much with how wonderful they are. (I tried to make this compliant with canon outside just the movie, but we'll see how well that goes.)

“So BB-8 told me you saved ‘em from a dastardly scavenger,” a man says and Rey recognizes him from BB-8’s descriptions of its master more than their brief meetings — the X-wing pilot Poe.

“What do you want?” she asks.

“Just to say hi. I’m Poe, remember? We… met briefly,” he says. He grins and reaches over Finn’s unconscious body to offer her his hand. The silence is only interrupted by the beating of Finn’s heart — amplified by the equipment in the isolation room. His smile falters slightly.

“I hear Finn saved you too. We should start a club.”

She looks at him and lets go of Finn’s hand to take Poe’s. His hand is so warm in comparison to Finn’s and he squeezes her hand as he shakes it.

“A club?” she asks, taking her hand back and fitting it around Finn’s again.

“It’s very exclusive right now,” Poe says, “Ace pilots saved by Finn, the ex-Stormtrooper.”

“How much has BB-8 told you?” she asks, suspicious. She thinks about everything she told the little droid — and, worse, about the moment where she considered trading it for food.

“A lot,” Poe says.

She frowns.

“Whoa, whoa! Don’t worry,” he tells her. “BB-8 doesn’t have a single bad thing to say about you. Rey, is it? BB can’t shut up about how great you are.”

“Oh,” she says. The blood rises in her cheeks, but she can’t understand why the kindness of a droid would do that.

BB-8 rolls into the room — Rey was told it is usually an isolation room, for patients in need of critical care — and chirps excitedly about a droid called R2-D2.

Rey feels her eyes go a little wide.

“Sounds great, BB,” Poe says. He looks back up at Rey and steps further into the room.

“Do you mind?” he asks, pulling a chair up.

She shakes her head. “No.”

He turns the seat and sits on it backwards, reaching out with both hands for Finn’s hand.

“I can’t wait for him to wake up and tell me how he kicked some First Order ass,” Poe says.

Rey nods. “He did. He saved me.”

“Me too,” Poe says. “Exclusive club, remember?”

“Yes,” Rey says. “I suppose… We could be a club.”

They lapse into silence and Rey sits with the question on her tongue for a very long moment, twenty breaths at least.

“What kind of club?” she asks. “Not a weapon, right?”

Poe laughs and Rey feels something angry boiling in her stomach. Her face is hot.

“Yeah, they probably only have one kind of club on Jakku,” Poe says. “This kind of club would be… a group of people with something in common.”

“Like a family?” Rey asks.

Poe smiles at her and she feels that heat again.

“Yes, like a family,” he says. “Better than a family, even, because you can’t pick your family, but you choose to join a club.”

“I didn’t choose to be saved by Finn,” Rey says, frowning. But she would, if she could. And if she could have woken a moment earlier to stop Kylo Ren from doing this to Finn, she would have chosen that.

“Yeah, but you don’t have to agree to be in a club with me,” Poe says.

“Oh,” she says, not understanding.

“So, wanna be in a club with me?” he asks.

She makes a face at him and he laughs. She can see his knuckles rise when he squeezes Finn’s hand.

“Alright,” she says. “I agree.”

When Poe grins she can see all his teeth, very clean and straight with a bit of space between each tooth. She is still getting used to seeing other humans, but she likes to see Poe. She likes to see Finn too, even though she would rather see him healed and awake.

“Great,” Poe says.

They sit in silence, listening to Finn’s heartbeat on the monitor. Rey counts her breaths and looks at Finn’s face, then Poe’s, then Finn’s.

When they are called away, it is because General Organa has a plan. This plan is full of words that Rey is used to hearing only in rumors and the stories of drunk scavengers — Jedi temple, Dark Side, Empire.

She looks at the General and wonders how she carries so much. They don’t talk about it, but she seems to understand what Rey is thinking without Rey having to say. Is that the Force?

The plan is accepted — Rey will go to Luke Skywalker, _the_ Luke Skywalker. With the New Republic destroyed and the Resistance’s forces decimated, the best ship to take is the Falcon. Rey knows she is living in the tall tale of a drunkard.

But taking the lightsaber and going to Luke Skywalker — to bring him back to his sister, to have him train her to be a Jedi — means leaving Finn.

She works on the Falcon and prepares for her departure, wishing every hour that Finn will wake up. The Resistance gives her clothing and food. There is so much water that she gets to bathe with it every day. Sometimes she lets it run over her body as cold as it will get, until her skin turns into bumps and her teeth chatter in her skull.

Finn does not wake. Her departure is hours away.

She dresses and the warmth of the air around her isn’t painful, like the heat on Jakku, but it softens the bumps on her skin after a cold shower. Her clothing now is thicker, meant to insulate against the occasional cold breeze.

Rey leaves the large room where she stays by herself, alone.

“Ready to go become a Jedi?” Poe asks, standing just to the left of her doorway.

Rey jumps.

“How long have you been there?” she asks.

“Uh,” Poe asks. “I was going to knock, but I could hear the water in the fresher.”

“Why are you here?” she asks.

“I know you check on Finn every day,” he says.

“So?” she asks, defensive.

“I know because I check on Finn every day, too. The 2-1B’s kind of a gossip.”

Rey blinks. Her eyes feel wet and she can barely stifle the instinct that tears are a waste of water.

“So, I just wanted to ask if you want me to tell him,” Poe says.

“Tell him what?”

“That you waited for him every day,” Poe says, “but you had to go meet a Jedi and save the galaxy.”

“Yes,” Rey says. “Tell him that.”

“Alright,” Poe says. “I will.”

“And… tell him,” Rey starts.

Poe looks at her, his eyes very intent on her eyes and his mouth closed, not even smiling a little.

“Tell him that I’ll come back,” Rey says. “I promise.”

Poe nods.

“I’ll make sure I’m there when he wakes up,” Poe says. “I’ll tell him.”

Rey smiles. She knows that Poe is busy helping the Resistance build up its forces again. But she wants to believe him. She wants someone to be there when Finn wakes up, so he isn’t alone.

If it can’t be her, then… Poe and she are a club, aren’t they? And that’s like a family. At least that’s what he said, which is enough for Rey. It will have to be.

“I’m going to see him before I go,” she says.

“Do you want me to come with you?” Poe asks.

Rey thinks about holding Finn’s hand with Poe across from her, holding the other. She liked that. But she also wants to be alone with Finn before she leaves.

“No,” she says, unsure of herself.

“Alright,” Poe says, smiling. “Say hi for me.”

“I will,” Rey says.

It’s the first thing she does as she takes Finn’s hand: “Poe says hi.”

She squeezes her hand around Finn’s hand and hopes that someone will still be holding it when he wakes up. If she’s not back, Poe will be enough. Just let there be someone. Don’t let him be _alone_.

\---

Poe Dameron wakes with a start — his body tells him he’s injured. He throws himself into motion and out of his bed. The pilots now have enough space that they’re not three to a room anymore. He doesn’t like the reasons, but at least there’s no one to witness him stumble around shirtless trying to figure out what just hit him.

“BB-8!” he calls out when he hears the droid beep. He can see its lights in the darkness of his bunk. “BB-8! I’ve been shot!”

The droid sticks out its short-distance weapon and blue electricity casts interesting shadows in the small room.

“What the varp,” Poe says, which he has only heard General Organa say once but he liked it so much he adopted it into his vocabulary.

BB-8 puts the zapper away and hurriedly tells Poe that he’s needed in the infirmary’s isolation. The 2-1B told BB-8 to fetch him immediately. Finn is awake.

Poe nearly leaps over BB-8 to get to the door. He runs through the base’s dark, quiet corridors not particularly caring if he wakes anyone up on his way. His bare feet slide across the floor as he takes each turn a little too fast. He stumbles once and catches himself on a light fixture before he can fall onto his face.

He can hear Finn before he gets to the infirmary.

“Where’s Rey?” he shouts. “Where is she? What did you do with her? Tell me or I’ll rip your drives out!”

“Hey now!” Poe shouts back. “No violence against medical droids.”

“Who’s there?” Finn shouts. “I won’t talk! I won’t go to reconditioning!”

Poe moves as quickly as he can, BB-8 on his heels. He’s breathing a little hard, but leans against the door to isolation and tries to play it cool.

“Forgot me already, Finn?”

Finn looks at him with sweat dripping down his face and his mouth slack. His eyes are so wide and the whites seem like the brightest thing in the dimly lit room.

“Poe,” he says.

“Hey buddy,” Finn says. “Sorry I wasn’t here when you woke up, I promised Rey I would be.”

“Rey?” Finn says. “Where is she? Is she alive?”

Up close, Poe can see that Finn’s wrists are restrained to the recovery bed. He scowls.

“Yeah,” he says, distracted. “She’s doing great. She’s training with Luke Skywalker — or at least I think that’s what she’s doing. The only message we got was from Chewbacca and it wasn’t a great transmission. Apparently the ancient Jedi temple is pretty remote.”

Finn’s mouth falls a little more open.

“Why’s he all tied up like that?” Poe asks the droids.

“The patient became quite distraught when he awoke,” the droid explains. “He must remain still or risk regressing his recuperation.”

“What’s it saying?” Finn asks. “What’s going on?”

Poe lowers himself until he’s level with the bed, looking up at Finn.

“The droids are a little distressed,” Poe says. “Say you’ll hurt yourself with all this sitting up and yelling about tearing their drives out.”

“Oh,” Finn says, and every breath makes his chest heave under the white gown he wears. The back is open and Poe can see the healing injury on his back — the skin swollen and dark. That can’t feel good to lay on.

Finn winces when he lays back down, but he does. The restraints open.

“I thought… I thought I was back on Starkiller.”

“Nah,” Poe says. “I blew that up. Well, with some help.”

“What?” Finn says, his eyes wide. “Seriously?”

Poe rests his chin on his hands and grins. “Seriously.”

Finn’s expression fades from something surprised into something Poe recognizes as dark and confused.

“Everyone I ever knew was on that base,” he says, his voice very small.

Poe’s pride goes cold. He feels like his heart just dropped into his stomach — maybe he should ask the med droids about that.

“Hey,” he says. “You know me. I’m here.”

He reaches out and takes Finn’s hand.

“You know Rey,” Poe continues. “And Chewbacca. They miss you. Chewbacca wanted to know how your recovery was going. He flew the Millennium Falcon right to Rey after she kicked Kylo’s ass.”

Finn smiles a little. “She did that?”

“Yeah,” Poe says. “She sure did.”

“Tell me about it,” Finn says, and the excitement is back in his voice.

Poe grins and begins to tell Finn what Rey told him — with embellishments from what he read in her debriefing report from General Organa and a few of his own exaggerations for flavor.

“I hate to interrupt, boys,” the general says.

Poe’s neck makes a series of pops when he turns his head whiplash fast. He gets to his feet in a hurry and turns.

“General,” he says.

“Officer Dameron,” she says. “You beat me here.”

She smiles a little. “And in such a state.”

Poe looks down at himself — suddenly really aware that he’s in his pajamas. But General Organa is dressed in a gown and robe, with her hair hanging down in braids that look well-slept on.

Poe bites his lip. “I was in a hurry.”

“I understand,” she says.

She moves across the isolation room and Poe can really see the royalty in her, with the hem of her robe brushing the floor and her hands tucked into her robe.

“Finn,” she says. “How good it is to see you awake.”

“It’s good to be awake, uh, General,” Finn says. “Are you here to debrief me?”

“No need to rush that,” the General says. “I’m here to thank you.”

“Thank me?” Finn asks. “But I couldn’t stop him after—”

“You did so much,” the General says. “Rey told us everything she could. Has Poe told you where she is now?”

“She’s with Skywalker, Luke Skywalker,” Finn says. “She’s a Jedi!”

“She’s training to become a Jedi,” the General tells him. “I hope.”

Poe notes how General Organa sighs when she says this, but Finn seems oblivious to any problem.

“I can’t believe it,” Finn says. “I can’t believe the Jedi are really real, they’re really returning.”

“There will always be individuals who could become Jedi,” the General says, “if they received the proper training. In fact, I believe you could be such an individual, Finn.”

Finn’s eyes look like they’re about to pop out of his head, which can’t be good when he’s already sweating and visibly in pain. An alarm goes off and BB-8 begins to sound an alarm of its own beside Poe’s leg.

“Hey now, BB-8, it’s okay,” Poe says. “I’m sure it’s okay.”

Before any of the medical droids can do anything, the alarm stops. The 2-1B bows its head, but asks General Organa to please not distress its patient any further.

“I apologize,” the General says. “Finn, please focus on your recovery. We will discuss this when you’re ready.”

“I’m ready!” Finn says. He tries to sit up and Poe can see the muscles of his back tense as it curves upward, pulling his shoulders back and make him grimace. He doesn’t cry out, but Poe can hear the hiss of his breath escaping through his clenched teeth. He goes back down hard.

“As I said, when you are ready,” General Organa repeats.

She moves out of the room as graceful as ever, more like a queen than a general.

“I hate this,” Finn says.

Poe looks down at him. “You hate that General Leia Organa thinks you could be a Jedi?”

“No!” Finn protests. “Not that, _obviously_. This! I hate this.”

“Well,” Poe says, “you almost froze to death — and that was after you got sliced up by a lightsaber.”

Finn groans. “How am I supposed to be a Jedi? I got my ass kicked.”

“Really?” Poe asks. “The way Rey tells it, you held Kylo Ren off with a lightsaber duel. That’s wild! Does the First Order even train their Stormtroopers on lightsabers?”

“No,” Finn answers. “I’ve really only used blaster before.”

“And you held your own against that Dark Side lunatic?” Poe asks, already knowing the answer. “That’s incredible! Just like how you were such a great shot in our TIE fighter — and then in the Millennium Falcon. The Millennium Falcon!”

“Oh yeah,” Finn says, grinning.

“Just think what you could do with a little more practice,” Poe says. “I’ve been flying since I was barely big enough to see out of the cockpit — that’s the real reason I’m so great.”

“Oh, you’re great, huh?” Finn asks.

“Best pilot in the Resistance,” Poe says, with a smile he hopes is as playful as Finn’s.

“I don’t know about that,” Finn says. “Have you ever flown the Millennium Falcon?”

Poe can only laugh.

They argue — jokingly, but passionately — about whether Rey should count. Poe says she doesn’t, because she’s off becoming a Jedi. If she counts, then shouldn’t Luke still count? But Finn has him when he points out that Rey is completing what was originally Poe’s mission for the Resistance.

Then Poe yawns.

“Are you tired?” Finn asks.

“You woke me up,” Poe explains.

“Oh,” Finn says, “so that’s why you’re wearing that. It didn’t really look like a Resistance uniform, but I know the Resistance can be a little… wild.”

“Wild?” Poe asks, smiling. “You really thought I just walk around all the time in only a pair of pants?”

“Well,” Finn says. “Not when you’re flying, obviously.”

Poe laughs so hard. He grabs Finn’s hand with both of his and rests his forehead against Finn’s curled fingers until he’s down to soft chuckles, feeling breathless or maybe delirious.

“I’m so glad you’re awake,” Poe says.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Finn says.

Poe can’t help but smile. Finn is so honest and his words, for a moment, make Poe feel just like he does when a ship shifts past lightspeed and jumps through the galaxy at Poe’s command.

\---

Not long after he’s conscious, Finn is cleared to leave the medical bay. It probably isn’t called a medical bay, because they’re on a planet and not a ship. But he never asked.

He thanks all the doctors and medical droids repeatedly, trying to remember their names. He’s pretty good at it, actually, names are even easier than numerical designations.

Finn smiles thinking about how he has a name now too.

He walks out of the medical bay hoping to find Poe.

“Finn,” General Organa says.

Finn turns and stands, straight-backed and stiff.

“Come with me.”

He follows her — wondering at how a voice of such authority can come from someone so short and old. The highest ranking officer he ever met aboard the Starkiller was Captain Phasma. He never saw her face, so maybe she was older too. Certainly, she wasn’t short.

But General Organa spoke with the same kind of authority in her voice and Finn found himself following her at marching pace.

They went through hallways as dark and twisting as those Finn was used to, though smaller. There was a doorway or two that some troopers would have had to duck to go through. Like Captain Phasma.

He felt… guilty. She would have killed him, surely, any of them would have. No one defected from the First Order. The First Order didn’t even come back for its fallen. If Slip had…

Finn breathed a little harder through his nose and stepped a little harder down the hall behind General Organa.

She turned her head slightly, but didn’t look over her shoulder.

They left the Resistance’s complex and stepped out into sunlight and warmth and green.

Finn realized he was still wearing the clothes he’d been given in the medical bay — including the shirt that opened at the back. He reached around and held the back shut against a light breeze.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” Finn said, nervous. He swallowed. “General Organa?”

“Yes?” she asked, finally looking back at him.

“Where are we going?”

“To the edge of the river,” she said.

No one questions their superiors in the First Order, so Finn’s tongue touches the roof of his mouth for a long moment before he asks, “Why?”

She stops and turns, looking up at him with shrewd eyes. Finn leans back slightly, just slightly, and thinks of Maz Kanata. He hopes she's okay.

“You're not really up for weapons training yet,” she says. “And I'm a little reluctant to let Poe Dameron turn you into a pilot just yet. But you're healthy enough to meditate.”

She turns back. “Probably.”

“Meditate?” Finn asks. “Yeah, sure, I can meditate. I can do anything. I feel fine.”

Sometimes his back spasms — but it did that sometimes when they had a long field exercise in the cold followed by early-hours floor polishing.

Also he only coughed that one time while he was laying down and he held his stomach just like the doctor had told him to, stayed straight-backed. It totally didn't feel like his wound was going to burst open.

He doesn't ask the General what “meditate” means.

Instead, they sit on a flat outcropping of stone over the shallow river and she says, “I'm surprised the First Order encourages their stormtroopers to meditate. Protocol must have changed since I was a girl.”

“Oh,” Finn says. “Probably.”

“Do you know what the Force is,” she says — not asks.

“Well,” Finn says. “I've heard things — overheard them, really.”

“I shudder to think about what people on Starkiller base thought of the Force,” General Organa says.

“I'm no Jedi,” she continues. “So I likely won't be as poetic about it. All living things produce a field of energy. That energy is the Force, and through it, everything is connected.”

“And there some people, uh,” Finn looks at the General for confirmation that he isn't interrupting.

“Some people can control that energy,” he finishes.

“Yes,” she says. “For now, I just want you to become aware of it — or more aware, at least.”

“How do I do that?” Finn asks.

“You sit here and think about it,” she says. “Try it for an hour, and if that's too hard, three hours.”

Finn makes a face — the kind of thing that's normally hidden behind a clunky white mask. The General smiles at him.

“Good luck, Finn.”

He tries. He really does. He closes his eyes and breathes through his nose. He thinks about the leaves overhead and the trees they're attached to. Are there fish in this river? He thinks about fish.

Fish are living, right? Do fish have the Force?

How long is an hour on D’Qar? Finn doesn't know and has no way to tell anyway. Also his back is sweaty. He's not even wearing real clothes.

“Hey there,” Poe says.

Finn snaps his head to the right and stares, wide-eyed.

“Leia told her old droid where you were,” Poe says. “BB-8 slipped the intel to me.”

“Oh,” Finn says. “I probably shouldn't be talking to you. I’m meditating.”

“In your hospital gown,” Poe says, like it’s a question. Poe has eyes. Obviously he can see what Finn’s wearing to meditate.

“It's not a gown,” Finn says.

He could say something about how Poe visited him when he woke up. He thinks of three different things to say, even, starting with “At least I'm wearing a shirt.”

But he liked that moment. He wouldn't want Poe to think he didn't.

“We're about the same height and my jacket looks good on you,” Poe says. “Come with me, we’ll see if anything else I own would fit you.”


	2. Come back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Rey returns, things are not as she left them. Finn has nightmares. Poe knew this was coming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for Finn having nightmares.

In the middle of a meeting on reassessing reconnaissance on the First Order — aka how did no one notice Starkiller base — the holocomm blinks to life.

Rey’s torso suddenly occupies the center of their meeting table, though reduced to only a fifth of her size.

“Journey has been a success,” she says. “Will take longer —”

The message goes silent for a moment and the ghostly image of Rey jerks violently enough that half the people gathered gasp. Poe holds his breath.

“— return.”

Poe exhales.

“Is the pilot there? Please tell him to tell Finn I'll be back soon. I hope —”

It glitches again.

“— ache when I do.”

Then it repeats, exactly the same.

Poe realizes on the second round that he's the pilot.

“Ache?” he questions.

“Awake,” Dr. Kalonia whispers to him.

“Oh.”

The excited chatter of everyone at the table drowns out Poe’s embarrassment.

“I believe this meeting is adjourned,” General Organa says. “Obviously we are all too energized by Rey’s impending return.”

“And your brother’s,” Akbar adds.

The General only smiles, her lips closed.

His sense of duty to her keeps Poe in his seat, but she is one of the first to leave the table. He follows her.

“Commander Dameron,” she says. He freezes mid-step, like one of Yavin 4’s pygmy deer. Leia usually just calls him Poe, unless he's really fracked something up.

“General,” he says, hesitating.

“Go to Finn,” she tells him. “Tell him the good news.”

He still doesn't move.

“Go,” she says again, stressing the word.

“Yes, ma’am,” he says, finally putting weight onto his heel. He turns, but the uneasiness lingers.

After a few steps, Poe breaks into a light jog. He grins. Finn’s face will just light up when Poe tells him and he can't wait to see it.

Finn never speaks of the people he knew as a stormtrooper — and Poe never asks him. But Finn tells the same stories over and over again about Rey’s flying and fighting and “we looked out the window and she was climbing the side of a wall, Poe, I couldn't believe it.”

He's as bad as BB-8, who asks every morning if Rey will be back today.

Passing a corridor, Poe hears the droid beep loudly and then come racing after him, metal rolling over stone.

“Where are you going Friend Poe? Why are you running Friend Poe?”

“Hey BB,” he says, between breaths. “Good news! Rey's coming back!”

All the beeps after that aren't really Binary. BB-8 beeps all the way down the hallway, like an isolated track from a weird song in some Mirrin sector nightclub for gearheads.

Finn is easy to find — at this hour he’ll be at the mess, probably regaling some of Poe’s new recruits with the story of how he and Rey blew up TIE fighters with the Millennium Falcon.

As they enter the mess hall, BB-8 accelerates past Poe and nearly rams a pilot and technician who are chatting, maybe flirting, between the tables.

Finn turns and looks down at BB-8 then up, searching for Poe. The smile Finn gives him when he sees him makes Poe stop and smile back. He walks the rest of the way across the mess.

“You gotta tell BB-8 I don't understand the beeping,” Finn says. “Or be here to translate.”

“Or,” Poe suggests, “you could learn Binary.”

Finn makes a face. “Or you could translate. So what's the excitement?”

Poe barely acknowledges that his recruits are all staring up at him too. He rests a loosely curled fist on his hip and grins.

“Got a message in the middle of a meeting from Rey,” he says.

“What?” Finn asks, scrambling out of his seat. “What did she say? Is she alright?”

Finn reaches out to put his hands on Poe’s shoulders, then hesitates and lets them fall to his sides. He fidgets with anticipation.

“She said she hopes you're awake,” Poe says.

“Did you tell her I am?” Finn says. “I've never been more awake in my life.”

He looks over Poe’s shoulder.

“Can I go tell her I'm awake?” he asks, craning his neck.

“The message was just one-way, sorry man,” Poe tells him. He puts his hand on Finn’s shoulder — to be reassuring, he tells himself.

“But she told me to tell you—”

“What?” Finn interrupts.

Poe grins at Finn’s excitement. “She’ll be back soon.”

His face lights up just the way Poe knew it would. He smiles so brilliantly, so purely happy, that Poe wants to kiss him. Instead, he bites his lip and grins back at Finn.

Finn huffs out a sigh that moves his whole body — then he grabs Poe and yanks him forward into a hug.

“This is the best news,” he says, face against Poe’s shoulder. “I can't wait.”

“I can't wait!”

He lets Poe go — which is so disappointing. Poe can feel the hard press of Finn’s arms around his ribs even as Finn sits back down at the table with his partially eaten mess hall lunch. There’s no space for Poe beside him; his own recruits crowd in on Finn’s sides. So Poe walks around the table and sits on the other side, with BB-8 following at his heels.

“Man, you guys are going to see such flying when Rey gets back,” Finn tells the recruits. “She’s gotta be one of the best pilots in the galaxy.”

He looks across the table at Poe and smiles. “And then there’s this guy.”

Poe smirks and shrugs his shoulders. “I won’t lie, I’m hoping we can fit in some racing. I know it’s a war, but…”

He’s afraid of war being what his father described, what killed his mother. He always hoped what they did already was enough, that the all-out, constant battle and wide-scale destruction his parents lived through could be avoided.

But he blew up a First Order base the size of a planet only a few weeks ago.

The hero in so many of his father’s stories — Han Solo — is dead.

Leia obviously doubts whether her brother will return with Rey after all.

“Man, that will be amazing!” Finn says. “You better take me up with you, Poe. I need to experience that in person. It’s not the same, watching you train these kids on a little datapad.”

“I promise,” Poe says. He doesn’t point out that ‘these kids’ are easily older than Finn. Or maybe Finn just looks and acts much younger than he is. Could he be a clone? Poe has no idea — and he doesn’t care to ask.

Finn smiles and then gets back to chatting up the recruits about Rey’s piloting skills.

When he gets back to eating, he has to pause again to talk. “Why don’t you get some rations, Poe?”

Poe shrugs a little. The truth is, he rarely eats in the mess. The food isn’t great; he can make much better in the barracks’ kitchen.

“I think I’ll cook something up later,” he says. “You know, you don’t have to eat here all the time.”

“But the food’s really good,” Finn says. “And I don’t have any credits anyway.”

Poe tries not to make a face at Finn for calling the bland mess hall food “really good.”

“I would cook for you,” Poe says. “You don’t need credits for that. Also, aren’t we paying you?”

“I don’t have an account or anything,” Finn says. “So I don’t know how you guys could be paying me.”

Poe sighs. “You know what? Come let me make you dinner and we’ll figure it out.”

Finn makes this very serious face at Poe, all heavy brow and firm mouth. “Alright.”

Then he goes right back to talking about Rey, which doesn’t surprise Poe at all.

He wondered why over a week later, Finn was still just wearing the clothes Poe gave him. Some part of Poe wanted to think it was because Finn liked it, even though Poe’s shirts and pants are all a little tight on Finn’s stormtrooper-trained muscles.

Now he knows Finn just doesn’t have the currency to buy his own clothes.

It would leave him depressed if there wasn’t something sort of funny about the whole thing.

\---

More people come to greet Rey when they land than she has ever seen in her entire life. Her heartbeat picks up in her chest, a squirming lizard between her ribs.

Luke Skywalker puts his hand on her shoulder. She breathes to calm herself.

For a moment, the crowd is totally silent. Then one person cheers and it becomes like thunder rolling through the gathered mass. None of them move, but Leia steps out of the press of bodies that flows like sand around her.

She puts her arms around Rey first and it is as calming, more calming than Luke’s hand on her shoulder.

“Hey sis,” Luke says, very quietly. Rey’s certain that only the three of them could hear him, not even Chewie or R2 beside them.

“Hello brother,” Leia says just as quietly.

Rey looks between the two of them and then steps back. It feels like the right thing to do — give them space to embrace each other. They’re family, after all.

She looks away, because otherwise she will stare at the way Luke touches Leia’s hair so gently when he holds her.

Chewbacca rumbles something about how good it is to see them reunited, no longer alone. Rey’s heart feels like a squirming lizard again.

“Rey!” someone shouts — no, not someone, _Finn._

She looks and sees him shoving his way past other people. Behind him, being dragged like a sack of salvage, is Poe Dameron.

Finn only lets go of Poe’s hand when Rey runs toward him. They collide with each other, arms stretched out. Rey’s feet come off the ground for a moment, like she’s flying, but then she hoists Finn up in her own excitement.

“Looking good, Rey,” he says. “Must be that Jedi training.”

She laughs, she can’t stop smiling and laughing. Happiness feels like a bright light filling her whole body, tingling like sunlight under her skin.

“And you!” she says. “You!”

“Who cares about me?” Finn asks. “You’re here!”

“I care,” Rey tells him. She squeezes him a little tighter.

Poe is watching them, Rey knows, she can feel it. But she can’t take her eyes off of Finn’s face. He looks so alive. Now she feels how alive he is. The Force is there, inside him, around him, coursing through them both.

“Poe,” Finn says, looking over his shoulder. “Look who it is!”

“I can see,” Poe says, smiling at them.

Rey only lets go of Finn because he starts to let go of her.

Finn reaches out and pulls Poe forward by his wrist.

“Glad to see you again,” Poe says. He holds one arm out like an invitation, but Rey stares at Finn’s hand on Poe’s wrist. Even after Finn lets go, she’s still looking at Poe’s hand.

She blinks and looks up at Poe’s face. She smiles, because he’s smiling at her. He is as pleasant to look at as she remembers. She reaches out and they embrace, a more cautious and gentle hug than when they first met and grabbed each other tight out of excitement.

She puts her cheek against his shoulder for a moment and breathes in the scent of engine grease and sweat on him, as well as something spicy that makes the inside of her nose itch.

When she pulls back, she sneezes slightly.

“Sorry,” Poe says. “Is it my aftershave?”

“What’s that?” she asks.

“It’s—” Finn starts.

“Do you know what perfume is?” Poe asks.

She nods.

“It’s like that, but for my face,” Poe tells her, smiling.

“Ah,” she says. “It’s nice.”

“Thanks,” Poe says. “I wear it just to impress anyone who hugs me.”

She laughs and Finn laughs too.

“Does that include me?” Finn asks.

“Of course,” Poe says, looking over at him. “It includes everyone. And I’m always available for hugs. That’s why I wear it every day.”

Taking his joke as an invitation, Finn puts an arm around Poe’s waist and the other behind Rey’s back. He presses them together and Rey feels Finn’s nose against her ear. Everything is very, very warm. Rey expects it to feel sweltering or oppressive at any moment, but it’s very calming actually.

“I can’t believe I know the two best pilots in the galaxy,” Finn says.

When Poe laughs, Rey can feel it in her ribs.

When Finn lets them go, Rey steps away from Poe and takes a deep breath without anyone’s arms around her chest.

“Poe’s going to teach me how to fly,” Finn says.

Rey’s smile quavers. No, she thinks, _I_ want to teach you how to fly. She glances at Poe’s pleasant face, then down at his hand, his wrist. She can still remember the feeling of Finn’s hand on her wrist, against her palm, the smooth fabric of his shirt sleeve. Now he’s wearing the faded, earthy colors of everyone in the Resistance. His clothes look more worn than they should — clearly not new. The thin patches on the sleeves don’t line up with Finn’s elbows. The fabric stretches oddly across his shoulders. His pants are tight on his waist, his hips, his thighs.

“What?” Finn asks. “Did I spill something?”

Rey blinks. “No. Your clothes don’t fit.”

“Oh,” he says. “These are Poe’s.”

Rey looks at her own clothes. They are hers because they are on her body. She turned the clothes Leia offered her into something she likes to wear. It is very easy to move in and her arms stay warm.

“If he lets you keep them,” she says, “I can show you how to fix them so they fit.”

“That would be great,” Finn says. “Hey, are you hungry? Let’s get something to eat.”

He puts his hand on her bare shoulder and Rey’s heart feels like a trapped lizard again, scared or hungry or just startled. It’s not anything she’s felt before. Perhaps she should ask Luke about it.

“You can’t feed her mess hall food,” Poe says.

“Why not?” Finn asks. “Have you seen this girl eat? It’s like she’s never had food.”

“Finn,” Poe says, putting his hands on his hips.

“What do you have against the mess hall anyway? It’s so much better than synthsust. And whatever they had back on Jakku, I bet.”

Rey shrugs. “Probably.”

“I can still cook better,” Poe says.

He looks at Rey and says, “And it won’t be as crowded back in my quarters.”

Rey looks at Finn. Her lizard heart beats too fast. Two desires pull her in opposite directions. She wants time and quiet with Finn, to ask how he’s feeling, to know he’s well, to learn what he’s been doing while she was so far away, to tell him what she’s done. But she doesn’t want Poe there anymore than she wants the crowd. She wants Finn alone.

This feeling, she recognizes, is the same hot flush of anger and defeat she felt once when she was small and her day’s work was torn from her by a pair of raiders.

But Finn isn’t a thing to be owned, she thinks.

_Why not?_ something inside of her whispers.

_Because he’s a friend_ , she tells the thing. Rey takes a deep breath and reaches out to put her hand against Finn’s back, feeling the worn fabric of Poe’s shirt against her palm.

“Let’s eat with Poe,” she says.

Finn agrees with a smile. “Alright.”

\---

Finn wakes in his bunk from the same nightmare that startles him awake most nights. He sees Slip go down, a blaster shot cutting through him. Bloody fingers reach out for his face, but he doesn’t have his mask on. Blood gets in his mouth.

He reaches up and opens the clasps that hold Slip’s mask to the rest of his armor. He pulls the helmet off.

Tonight, he found Rey’s face. Last night it was Poe’s, bloody and pale like he had been when Finn dragged him out of his cell.

Finn breathes harshly and stares at the ceiling until he can make out the pattern of the stone. He isn’t on Starkiller anymore. He’s on D’Qar. He’s lying on a thin cot mattress in the Resistance barracks. He doesn’t even have a roommate, just a very small room with his own desk and chair and wardrobe full of mostly Poe’s clothes.

Outside his door, Finn hears footsteps. He leaps out of bed.

Someone knocks once on his door.

“Who’s there,” he demands, his heart pounding.

“Finn?” Rey’s voice asks. “Are you alright?”

He opens the door just to see her face. He needs to see it. Drops of sweat roll down his cheek, down his neck, down his back. Rey blinks at him. Her eyebrows are knit together, tilting to show her concern.

“Hi Rey,” he says.

“I felt something,” she says. “It woke me up.”

Finn doesn’t know what to say. “I dreamed you were dead,” seems like the wrong thing to say.

In his mind, he can hear Captain Phasma’s frustrated sigh. “Sentiment will only get you killed on a battlefield, FN-2187. Stop helping FN-2003. Let him fail.”

“Do you want some water?” Rey asks.

“Yeah,” Finn says.

They walk to the barrack’s food processing center — or kitchen, he’s heard it called — and Finn takes one of the glasses he knows belongs to Poe.

“Oh wow,” Rey says. “There’s blue milk custard in here.”

“What’s that?” Finn asks.

“It comes from batha milk, I think,” Rey says. “Then they mix in eggs and sugar and cook it.”

“Do you want to try it?” he asks, pouring himself a glass of water.

“It belongs to someone.”

“Oh,” he says. “Yeah.”

“There’s so much alcohol in this cooling chamber,” she says.

He drinks his water in slow sips.

“Do you want some fruit?” Rey asks. “I bought fruit.”

“Sure,” Finn says, his stomach still churning. He looks at her and keeps thinking of how she could die. The First Order won’t be stopped by the destruction of Starkiller. And they’ll be back even stronger. That’s how it always is. He’d even believe it if Captain Phasma came back and hunted him down specifically.

It’s only a matter of time, some part of him thinks.

Rey holds out something round and red to Finn. He takes it.

She bites into one herself and it drips down her mouth, red as blood.

He looks at the fruit in his hand and drinks his water instead. Then he sets his glass and the uneaten fruit on the small table. He sits down because his knees feel like he’s marched a hundred kilometers. Even water makes him feel like he might vomit.

Rey keeps eating her fruit, but she looks at him with concern.

“You look sick,” she says.

She walks over and touches his face suddenly. He jerks his face away from her touch.

“Finn,” she says, her voice sharp.

“Sorry,” he says. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re cold, but you’re sweating,” she says, frowning.

“Yeah, I’m…” He doesn’t know what to tell her.

“Do you want to sit somewhere more comfortable?” Rey asks. “Do you need to lie down?”

“I’m fine,” Finn says. “I’m fi—”

Rey grabs him by the arm and pulls him up off the small chair. She holds her fruit in her teeth and picks up Finn’s piece of fruit and rests it on the top of his glass of water, then picks up both. He doesn’t ask, just watches her do it.

Together, they leave the kitchen and head to the usually busy recreation room. All the games and stations are turned off and the room is dark and quiet at this early hour.

Nearly silent, but obvious by the lights on its head, BB-8 slips past them in the corridor. It beeps at them, but Finn doesn’t know what it’s saying.

Rey tries to say something, but she’s gagged by the food in her mouth. BB-8 continues to beep at them.

“Sorry, BB, I don’t know what any of that means,” Finn says, as Rey drags him over the to the rec room’s lounging chairs. He happily lets himself fall onto one. Rey hands him his glass of water, fruit still perfectly balanced in the mouth of the glass.

“He’s sick,” Rey says to BB-8, after she takes the fruit out of her mouth.

“I’m fine,” Finn insists. “Really.”

BB-8 continues to beep at Rey.

“No, it’s fine,” she says. “It’s fine.”

The beeping goes curt, or maybe that’s Finn’s imagination. The droid’s little head leans back and then turns away from them. It slowly, quietly rolls back to the corridor and goes right.

Rey sits down beside Finn’s legs.

“Eat your fruit,” she says.

“I’m not really hungry,” Finn says, tasting acid at the back of his throat.

“You need to eat,” she says. “If you have a fever or anything, food will help.”

“I don’t have a fever,” Finn insists. “I’m not sick.”

In the dark, she glares at him. He sighs. He wants to see her face so badly that he almost doesn’t blink, but also doesn’t want to see her being irritated with him.

“Do you ever have bad dreams?” he asks.

“Of course,” Rey says. “I often dream of Kylo Ren.”

The image of Rey’s body being tossed into the air like nothing and the solid sound of her hitting a tree flood Finn’s mind. Suddenly, he can’t breathe. His heart beats so hard it feels like it’s marching up his throat.

“Finn,” Rey says. She grabs him by the shoulders. Then cups his face in both hands.

“Finn, what’s happening? What’s wrong?”

This doesn’t help his panic. He tries to think of Leia’s advice, of all the meditation he’s been doing. Finn tries to think about the Force. It’s in all living things. And Rey is a living thing. He can feel her pulse through her hands on his face. In the rooms around him, twenty pilots are sleeping. There are ants in a cupboard of the food processing center. There is a potted plant in Rey’s room that needs to be watered.

“I’m okay,” Finn says. “I’m okay. I’m okay.”

“Finn,” Rey says.

“You’re alive and I’m okay.”

“Yes, I’m alive,” Rey says. “And you’re alive.”

Rey leans in, pressing their foreheads together. “Sometimes I dream that he killed you and I couldn’t stop him. I wasn’t strong enough.”

Finn feels the breath shudder in his chest. He wants to laugh, but instead his eyes get wet. He hopes Rey can’t tell tears from sweat.

“I dream of my friend who… I had a friend,” Finn says. “And on Jakku, he… He was shot. And sometimes it’s you or it’s Poe instead and I… Shit.”

“I’m alive,” Rey says. “And Poe is alive. We are both alive.”

In a smaller voice, she says, “I’m sorry about your friend.”

“He was a stormtrooper,” Finn says. “That’s what… That’s what we were trained to do.”

“Die?” Rey asks.

Finn’s chest lets out another laugh that’s not a laugh.

For a long time, they sit quietly with their foreheads together. Finn’s breathing slowly gets back to normal. He thinks a lot about the ants in the kitchen cupboard. His heart starts to hurt less. His throat doesn’t feel like he’s choking. When Rey moves, eventually, their skin is stuck together a little by sweat.

She doesn’t lean away from him, but she moves. He doesn’t know what she’s doing even as her lips touch his forehead.

“What was that?” he asks.

“A kiss,” she answers.

“Oh,” Finn says. He knew that.

He lets his glass sit on the lounge fabric and reaches up with both hands. Rey’s hair is so smooth under his hands. He has to stretch, but Rey bows her head. He touches his mouth to her skin very softly, hopefully as softly as Rey kissed him.

They look at each other.

“Don’t people usually do this, uh, mouth to mouth?” Finn asks.

“I think so,” Rey says. “When there’s a contract, or even without one.”

Finn scowls. He doesn’t know anything about contracts, but sometimes troopers would kiss. Zeroes and Nines did at times, even though they all knew that it was the sort of thing that could get them sent to reconditioning. They did a lot more than kiss, really.

But Finn hasn’t even kissed.

At least until now.

“Let’s try it,” Rey says.

She leans down, pulling Finn’s face towards her. He leans up, pulling her down. Their noses meet as well as their mouths. Rey laughs. Finn smiles — and moves his head just a little so their lips can touch without her nose bumping into his.

They touch their lips together again and again, in small motions. Rey reaches up and scratches her nails against his scalp a little. It feels good, as good as he expected it would.

Then Rey turns away, looking out over her shoulder. Finn looks too.

“I was just, uh,” Poe says.

He stands in the doorway of the rec room looking much the same as he did when Finn woke in the med bay. But this time he’s wearing a shirt. Finn feels a little disappointed by that, but he’s not sure why it’s disappointing. Well, obviously, Poe looks good without a shirt on, but…

“I’ll go,” Poe says.

“Why?” Finn blurts out.

Rey looks back at him, her thin eyebrows lowering sharply over her dark eyes.

“Sorry to interrupt you two,” Poe says. “BB said Finn was sick.”

“He had a dream that I died,” Rey says.

“Hey!” Finn snaps.

“Or maybe it was you,” Rey adds, which actually makes the whole situation worse.

At least Poe can’t send him to be reconditioned for kissing Rey, but he’d almost want to be if he could forget her telling Poe about his nightmares.

“Oh,” Poe says. “Well, I’m not dead.”

He walks into the room and Rey sits up. Apparently the kissing is over. Finn really hopes he doesn’t need to have another horrible dream just for Rey to kiss him again. But, then again, he has those pretty regularly and kissing might make it not so bad.

Poe reaches out and pinches Finn’s arm.

“Hey!” Finn says. “What was that for?”

“To prove I’m not dead,” Poe says. “And since you’re not dying, I’ll go back to bed. But if you want to make out, maybe don’t do it in the rec room. That’s what you have bunks for.”

Finn looks at Rey, who just looks confused.

Poe yawns. “Good night.”

“Good night,” Finn says.

“Yes, good night, Poe,” Rey says.

Once he’s out of the rec room again, Rey turns to Finn and asks, “What did he mean by ‘make out’?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> jeffgoldblumsmulletinthe90s.tumblr.com


	3. Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The First Order catches up with them. Poe makes a good co-pilot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't sure how to warn in the tags, but this chapter deals with the First Order doing Fucked Up Shit to its stormtroopers.

The way that Finn talked about Rey, Poe always knew how he felt about her. But he always held out a little hope for himself. How could he not? Finn wasn’t shy about grabbing Poe to show his excitement. Poe’s never been hugged so much in his life — and his family never skimped on physical affection.

But they’re cute. And as they become comfortable with one another, Poe finds himself enjoying the sight of Rey and Finn holding each other’s hands.

He doesn’t love them any less because they love each other.

But that doesn’t mean he knows what to say when Finn comes to his room and sits on his bed and says, “I need your help.”

“With what?” Poe asks, because he knows not to agree to something without hearing what it is first.

“I don’t know what I’m doing with, uh,” Finn makes some strange gestures. “Kissing and stuff.”

Poe puts his hands on his hips and looks up at the ceiling.

“I don’t know who else to ask,” he says. “Rey already asked Luke—”

“She asked _Luke Skywalker_ for advice on kissing?” Poe asks, looking at Finn. He’s not sure if he’s horrified or about to crack up.

“What did he say?”

“Uh,” Finn’s brows scrunch up. “Something about passion being a pathway to the Dark Side.”

“That makes sense,” Poe says, nodding.

“I don’t get it,” Finn says. “Kylo Ren acts like he’s never been kissed in his life.”

Poe barks with unexpected laughter. Did Finn just call Kylo Ren a frustrated virgin? It sure sounds like it.

“I’m not sure what advice I can give you,” Poe says. “Just do what feels good and, uh, are you having sex?”

“No,” Finn says.

“Well, if you do, you need to be sure one — or both, I think both is better — of you is using protection. You have a lot of options.”

“Protection?” Finn asks.

“Y’know, so you don’t accidentally wind up making baby Jedis,” Poe says.

“Oh, that would be impossible,” Finn says, “It’s protocol for troopers to be sterilized.”

Poe blinks.

“Anyway, I’m not sure we’re ready to have sex,” Finn continues. “I don’t even know what to do with my hands when Rey kisses me.”

Still reeling from Finn’s admission, Poe just barely stops himself from laughing. He doesn’t want Finn to think he’s laughing at his inexperience. That would be cruel.

“Why don’t you ask Rey what she’d like you to do with your hands?” Poe suggests.

“Yeah, I’ve done that,” Finn says. “But I don’t know if we’re doing it right.”

“As long as you both enjoy it,” Poe says, “there’s no wrong way to do it.”

Finn frowns at him, clearly unhappy with that answer.

“Look, I’ve seen it on shows and I… I had some friends who were in a relationship, I guess, and I am pretty sure we’re doing it wrong,” Finn says. “Can’t you just show me?”

“Well, my grandmother used to watch some pretty steamy holo-telenovelas,” Poe says. “I’m sure you could figure out all the basics from programming.”

“Yeah, but I like you as much as I like Rey,” Finn says, “and you’re a good teacher, I mean, I’m not the only person you’ve taught how to fly.”

Poe has to laugh. “Kissing is easier than piloting, I promise.”

“See? You’ve got experience!” Finn says.

“Yeah,” Poe says. “A little.”

Finn bounds up from the bed and comes right up to Poe, standing aggressively close. When he was sitting, Poe could easily remember that Finn is much younger than him. This whole conversation is all about his inexperience, after all, and he _sounds_ young.

But when Finn’s staring right into Poe’s eyes from an inch away, it’s a little harder for Poe to remain the calm, wise, older friend that he thinks Finn needs.

“Show me,” he says, with all the determination that Poe admires. He never gives up, Poe thinks. He’s not going to give this up.

“I think,” Poe says, stepping back, “that Rey might have some objections to that.”

“She knows I’m here,” Finn says. “It was sort of her idea, I mean, she already knows that I like you. She just guessed that I might want to kiss you.”

Poe knows what he should say, but instead he asks, “Do you?” Which is not at all the right thing to say.

“I think so,” Finn says. “It matters more if you want to kiss me, but Rey says you do.”

“Rey says that, huh.”

How would she know that unless—

“Tell your girlfriend to stay out of my head,” Poe snaps. He crosses his arms over his chest and moves across the room from Finn.

“She didn’t!” Finn says. “It wasn’t like that. She just… She says the way you look at me reminds her of, uh, she said it’s like how she looks at me. So really I should be the one who’s creeped out, because why are you guys looking at me that much.”

“What?” Poe asks. “You don’t know?”

“No,” Finn says, so quickly that Poe has to believe he’s being honest.

“Alright, so Rey isn’t using the Force to dig around in my head,” Poe says. “That’s good.”

“Then is she right?” Finn asks. “Do you want to kiss me?”

In Poe’s imagination, in a galaxy where Finn doesn’t tenderly hold hands with the last hope for the Jedi when he thinks no one is looking, he was always the one to ask Finn that question. He imagined something romantic, a tight embrace and hushed words. He feels like he’s flown too close to an object and forgotten to adjust for its gravitational pull, like he’s being jerked around by forces he can’t control.

But he’s used to that, a little, that’s what piloting is about.

“Yeah,” Poe says. He bites his lip and doesn’t uncross his arms. “Doesn’t mean that I should.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Finn asks, sounding so, so young again.

“It means that you’re going to have to figure this out on your own, kid,” Poe tells him. “Or with your girlfriend. I’m not getting involved.”

“But,” Finn says. Poe watches his throat as he swallows. When Finn’s shoulders slump, he feels a little twinge of guilt. But doing the right thing is hard, even for him; it doesn’t always feel good. Poe is so sure this is the right thing to do.

They’re young. They’ll figure it out.

After Finn leaves, without any more protest, Poe sits on his bed and tries to go over everything he said. There was so much he’d like to ask about — about Luke Skywalker’s advice to Rey, about Rey apparently seeing how Poe feels without him knowing, about what the First Order _did_ to Finn.

There was a part of Poe that really, truly wanted Finn and Rey to be able to have some Jedi babies. That’s what fighting a war is supposed to be about. Two people who love each other face down all that death and hopelessness so they can build a house on Yavin 4 and raise a kid and plant some trees.

At least that’s what Poe’s parents did.

All the great things Finn has already accomplished — who is he going to pass those stories on to?

Poe lays back on his bed and stares at his ceiling.

“This sucks.”

Then his comm goes off and Poe remembers that he doesn’t have the luxury of lying around feeling overwhelmed by his friends’ youthful romance. He’s actually glad for it.

\---

Rey almost feels grateful to the First Order for taking so long to find the Resistance base of operations on D’Qar. She’s had time to really get the Falcon into shape — with improvements. But there’s no time to feel gratitude and she still hates everyone currently shooting at her _friends_.

“Do you even know what you’re doing?” she demands.

“It’s a ship,” Poe says beside her. “I’m a pilot.”

Together, they run through the lift-off checks while Finn harangues them from the gunner’s seat. “Come on, come on, come on.”

Behind the cockpit door, Rey can still hear Chewbacca’s groans of pain and even louder curses. There are more than enough people and droids aboard the Falcon to care for the injured.

“Can this comm out?” Poe asks. “I need to get some orders out.”

“Yes,” Rey says. “Pick your frequency there.”

She throws her arm out in front of her face to point to the comm controls.

The Falcon starts to lift off the ground finally and Rey turns it hard to the left. Through the ship’s communicators, she hears Finn’s whoop of delight. A Stromtrooper transport goes up in flames.

“This is Black Leader aboard Falcon,” Poe says. “Do you read.”

The comm lights up with replies instantly. Rey grits her teeth and pulls the Falcon up, well aware of all the people she’s jostling in the ship’s body.

“This is Blue Three. We read.”

“Poe! You’re on the Millennium Falcon?! This is Red One.”

She puts the sounds out of her mind, even the sound of Poe’s voice becomes inconsequential.

“This is Black Leader. Red and Green, I want you to get up and take out their air support. Blue, focus on their ground support. Gold, I need you to help the ground fire. Shoot anybody in white armor, alright?”

“Where are we going?” Poe asks her.

“To see where they’re coming from,” Rey says, then she punches the Falcon upward into D’Qar’s atmosphere.

The TIE fighters that try to stop them are just signs to Rey that they’re on the right track.

“It’ll be a Star Destroyer,” Poe says. “Maybe more than one.”

“Alright,” Rey says.

In her head, she weighs the benefits of letting the First Order capture them just to blow the thing from the inside. But there are other people on the Falcon. There are injuries already.

“Do you want me to call in support?” Poe asks.

“I’m thinking,” Rey says.

“Think faster,” Finn tells them from below. “These things are multiplying.”

“How many TIE fighters are on a Star Destroyer?” Rey asks.

“I don’t know,” Finn says. “A lot? Definitely a lot. There’s a main hangar on the port side and a lateral starboard exit too.”

“Then we’ll take out those first,” Rey says.

“No, no, we’ve got to take out their canons,” Poe says.

“There’s like a thousand of those!” Finn protests.

“Then I’ll call for some backup.”

Rey jerks and turns the Falcon, glad that its shields protect them from all the annoying TIE fighter fire. Almost spiteful, Rey rams a TIE fighter with the wing of the ship and feels the ricochet as the Falcon’s shields smash the TIE fighter’s wing to pieces.

“Damn!” Poe says.

Finn’s shooting is impeccable. Rey listens to his chatter to himself over the comm.

“Yeah, baby!”

“Woohoo!”

“And another one!”

“I got X-Wings coming in now,” Poe tells him. “Don’t shoot ‘em.”

Rey finds she has even more objects to avoid, all of them small and quick as Jakku’s night locusts. And just as annoying.

But the locusts help take out the canons and the lasers on the belly of the Star Destroyer.

“I see the hangar entrance,” Rey says. Then she guns the Falcon’s engines just under lightspeed to go the length of the Star Destroyer in one shot. A TIE fighter goes to pieces when it slams into the ship’s very upgraded shields and gets shot at by Finn. A lot of alarms go off and Rey silences them with the quick movements of her hands.

“Do we have a plan?” Poe asks.

“Nope,” Rey tells him, shaking her head.

Barging into a hangar built for dainty First Order TIE fighters makes the Millennium Falcon like a Bantha in a pottery stall. Equipment, fighters, troopers, and technicians all go down under Finn’s fire. Rey hits the switch to drop some of the Falcon’s other surprises.

“How do I get to the starboard exit?” she asks.

“I don’t know!” Finn says.

Canon fire slams into the side of the Falcon, shoving it into the side of the hangar. Rey overcorrects her steering and speeds up.

Without an exit strategy, Rey tells Finn to blast a hole through the side of the hangar.

“As big as you can!”

Somewhere on the other side of this Destroyer is another exit and all the damage they can cause might help them find it.

“Are you insane? Do you know how thick these walls are? What they’re made of?”

“Yes,” Rey says. “Hit the conduit there with something explosive.”

“Whatever you say,” Finn says.

And together, they drive the Millennium Falcon through a First Order Star Destroyer. What lies deep in the center of the Destroyer are a few important things including what looks like a bridge control area.

“Is this an exit?” Rey asks.

“I don’t know?” Finn answers. “Maybe?”

“Yes,” Poe says. “It has to be, they’ve got the same holds as the main hangar did.”

“Thank you,” Rey says.

They blow their way out the starboard side of the Destroyer.

“Well that was fun,” Poe says.

“We haven’t destroyed it!” Finn says. “What are we going to do?”

“This is Black Leader. Report your status, pilots,” Poe says into the comm channel.

“We’ve got TIE fighters on the run down here,” one pilot says.

“Weapons systems are neutralized on the Destroyer,” someone else says. “Nice work on the inside, I think they’re scrambling.”

Maybe they are scrambling, but TIE fighters dog the Falcon all the way down.

“Shit,” Rey says.

“What?” Poe asks.

And then the power supply for the shields shorts out. Alarms go off.

The proximity sensors warn her of incoming fire from an approaching TIE fighter — now two approaching TIE fighters. She jerks the ship to the left, then right. But fire hits the edge of the engines.

“I’m taking her down hard,” Rey says.

“Better tell everyone that,” Poe comments. He throws open the comm to the rest of the ship.

“We’re coming down hard, everybody!” he announces. “Hold onto something!”

The only noise Rey hears from outside the cockpit that really matters is Chewie’s bellowing warning about not putting her down in water.

But D’Qar has a lot of rivers and the only other option is forest.

“Shit,” Rey says again, quietly.

“Oh boy,” Poe says.

“We’re gonna crash into the trees, aren’t we?” Finn asks.

“Get out of the gunner’s seat,” Rey tells him. “I’m going low.”

Every tree hits something Rey will regret when she has to fix it. She slows the Falcon as much as she can, with Poe cleaning up all the alarms and system warnings that are screaming at her about what a terrible idea this is.

The Falcon slams to a stop caught between two trees.

Rey launches herself out of the pilot’s seat and out of the cockpit.

“Finn!” she calls. “Leia! General! Is everyone alright?”

The cabin of the ship is in shambles. In one direction, she can see BB-8 suspended by cables latched onto the ship’s walls. The General’s hair has half fallen out of its braid and her mouth is tight with some feeling Rey knows won’t be good.

“Yes,” she says. “Barely.”

“That was certainly interesting flying, Mistress Rey,” C3PO says. “I remember Master Solo’s own piloting was not so different. I may even quantify it as reckless endangerment.”

Finn appears out of the underbelly of the ship.

“I didn’t even throw up this time,” he says.

“When did you throw up after flying?” Poe asks behind her.

Rey rolls her eyes. There are more important things to worry about.

“What do we do?” she asks Leia. “They know where our base is. They’ll be back.”

“I know,” she says. “It’s time to go. We should have left weeks ago, when you returned.”

“Where will we go?” Rey asks. She can feel a headache welling up between her eyes. “Where can we go?! They’ll just follow us!”

Leia steps forward, away from Chewbacca, who makes reassuring rumbles that Rey ignores.

“Rey, listen to me,” she says. “If the First Order could destroy us, they would have. We will move our base, but we will find theirs and come to them. Perhaps it’s not the way of the Jedi, but we are at war and the Resistance will retaliate.”

There’s a familiar fire in Leia Organa’s eyes, but it is carefully banked. Rey is not afraid of it.

“The General knows what she’s doing,” Poe says. He puts his hand on Rey’s shoulder and she finds herself leans into the curve of his palm.

“I know that,” Rey insists.

She turns to look at Poe and his hand drops from her shoulder. She wants it back.

“It was an honor to be your copilot,” he says. “We make a good team, I think.”

He holds out his hand to her and Rey looks at it. She thinks about Finn’s fingers curling around Poe’s, fitting between them.

Rey throws her arms around Poe’s neck and drags him into a hug that’s almost an assault. He stumbles forward, putting his arms around her waist.

“I take it you agree, then,” he says.

She takes a deep breath of the engine grease-aftershave scent on Poe’s skin. Something about it makes her less afraid. So much time around Luke, around Leia, even around Finn, Rey could just weep with gratitude that there’s this much bravery in someone who isn’t sensitive to the Force, who doesn’t feel what’s at stake every second of every day.

Poe’s faith in the General and in her is so strong that Rey can feel it, like solid ground under her feet, like his skin under his flightsuit.

She leans back slightly, putting her weight back onto her heels.

“You’re helping me fix it,” she tells him.

“Sure thing,” Poe says. “Anything for a lovely lady and the best pilot in the galaxy.”

She looks him in the eyes for a long moment. Then tilts her head back and pushes up on her toes again. Her mouth meets Poe’s softly at first, but then harder. He tries to pull back, but she holds him down by the neck.

Distantly, Rey hears C3PO say, “Oh my.”

Then Poe tries to pull away again and Rey realizes her mistake. She lets go of him in a hurry.

“I’m sorry!” she says.

“Uh,” Poe says. He’s looking past her at everyone else on the ship. She looks behind her. Everyone is staring. She catches Finn’s eyes and he flashes her a smile, then a thumb’s up.

“Oh, to be young again,” Leia says. “I don’t miss it.”

\---

Finn thought that he had seen lush forests on Takodana. He thought he had truly experienced heat on Jakku. But it’s been two days on Yavin 4 and he hasn’t stopped sweating since they landed.

The air feels like it’s raining even in the all-too-brief times when it’s _not_ raining.

“I’m melting,” he says.

“Ah, pobrecito,” Poe says. “Hand me the pneumatic wrench.”

“You wouldn’t be so hot if you didn’t wear all those clothes,” Rey says, as he digs through their toolboxes for the wrench.

“This one?” he asks. “Also, Rey, I don’t want to be eaten by giant bugs. So I’ll keep my shirt on, thanks.”

Poe smiles at Finn and his hair and skin shine with sweat, instead of looking like he got caught in the rain. He wears an old, dirty flight suit as pants, with the sleeves tied around his hips so it won’t fall off.

Rey wears even less, with her bare arms and legs marked by reddened scratches and streaks of oil. On her, sweat looks like morning dew.

Finn wishes he would just turn into a puddle already.

Instead he guzzles water from a huge metal can and hands Poe and Rey the tools they ask for as they chat with one another in whatever language it is Poe keeps speaking. It’s not Basic at all and Finn is jealous of how quickly Rey picked it up.

He sits on the ground next to his can of water and crosses his sweaty arms over his sweaty chest. He has to sit with his legs as far apart as possible because his thighs keep sticking to each other — and everything else keeps sticking to his thighs.

“You know,” he says, when Poe walks over to him. “I don’t like it — the droids, the wookie, and now you! I feel like I can’t talk to anybody ‘cause I only speak Basic.”

“Ah, sorry,” Poe says. He stretches and Finn watches the muscles in his arms and chest move. There’s a little smear of grease across his cheek under one eye. The fact that he can’t understand half of Poe’s conversations with Rey is only the second most unfair thing about today.

“You could be talking about me,” he says.

Poe raises an eyebrow at him, then bends over to pick up Finn’s water can. Finn tries not to watch his throat move as he drinks.

“Ah, Finn, tienes las mejores nachas del mundo,” he says, winking. It’s all clearly _words_ — just not any that Finn understands. Except his name.

He makes a face.

“Rey!”

“What?” she snaps, her voice echoing inside the hull of the Millennium Falcon.

“What did he say about me?” Finn yells.

“No idea,” she says. “Wasn’t paying attention.”

“I said I’m not talking about you,” Poe tells him, without meeting his eyes.

Finn scowls. “Whatever.”

He knows Poe’s lying, but it’s just not worth it. He’s too hot to argue.

Behind him, Chewbacca bellows something long and loud that Finn feels like he agrees with, even though he has no idea what the wookie is saying ever.

He takes the chance and says, “I agree with whatever he said.”

Chewbacca turns toward him and says something else.

“He says we should come in before we get eaten by beetles,” Rey says.

“See?” Finn says, feeling buoyed by that small success. “I do agree!”

“And also that he’s easy to understand,” Rey says. “Which he is. He called you something rude, too.”

Finn glares at the wookie from the corner of his eye.

The house they are staying in while Rey and Finn repair the Millennium Falcon — and Chewbacca heals — used to belong to Poe’s parents. The thick tropical jungle all around works to hide handfuls of other Resistance ships and pilots and soldiers, as well as the huge freighter that smuggled them out here. And Yavin 4 is not the only outer rim planet the Resistance has fled to. As it turns out, the First Order blowing up the Hosnian system has been a great recruiting tool, their forces and fleet have more than quadrupled in size. Finn wouldn’t have guessed that. Shouldn’t people be more terrified to oppose the First Order? They can blow up whole systems!

Or, at least, they could.

BB-8 rolls out the open door, past a screen to keep out insects, and beeps with what Finn guesses is excitement.

“Ah, thanks BB-8,” Poe says.

Finn doesn’t even have to ask, he just _looks_ at Poe questioningly and Poe smiles, “Food’s ready.”

Rey breezes by both of them and is the first in the door.

Inside, Finn’s a little bit cooler. He doesn’t feel like he’s going to boil in his skin.

They go to bathe — with real water, the novelty has yet to be lost on Finn — and Finn is last because apparently it’s important to get motor oil off skin. He understands, but he’s also marinating in his own juices.

He also doesn’t know how to talk to Poe’s grandparents. They’re so old. He’s never even had parents — well, obviously, he had parents at some point. But he doesn’t know what happened to them. People end up stormtroopers for a lot of reasons. The First Order takes slaves — selling the parents and keeping any children under the age of three. Sometimes it doesn’t even require force: people take out loans of credits and the First Order ends the debt with an exchange. Other times they’re bought outright or taken from the areas the First Order razed. He heard other troopers discuss it in recreation areas while he cleaned.

While Finn wants to think it always bothered him, he knows it used to make him not feel so alone.

He wondered what happened to his family, to his parents. Were they alive somewhere in the galaxy? If they’d fought to keep him, he’s certain that they aren’t.

No one stands up to the First Order and lives, he still thinks, even surrounded by people who have done just that.

He sits on a pleasantly stuffed lounge with Poe’s grandmother beside him. Her hair is completely white and her skin is even more creased than Maz Kanata’s. Her eyes have almost disappeared into the folds of skin around them. He’s not totally sure how she watches the television, but she enjoys it so much that she shares her thoughts with Finn the whole time.

“He’s cheating on her,” she says.

“Who?” Finn asks.

“Fernando,” she says. “He doesn’t love Katina, only her money. She should get with Das’fanu.”

“The Twi’lek?” Finn asks.

Poe’s grandmother looks over at him and nods her head slowly. Finn’s slightly embarrassed that he’s starting to understand what she’s talking about.

“The fresher’s free,” Poe says.

Finn knows it’s his home and also it’s oppressively hot and humid on Yavin 4, but it makes him feel uncomfortable to see Poe walk out in a robe that’s only loosely belted around his hips. When he turns away, Finn can see a flash of Poe’s bare thigh.

Finn bolts for the fresher and runs the water as cold as it will get, which is _actually_ cold despite the heat in the air. He scrubs himself down to get the salt off his skin, then quickly dries off so he can enjoy the blissful few minutes before he’s sweating again.

Being daring, Finn avoids putting on his sweaty shirt. He just puts on his underwear and pants, then slips out the door. He makes it to the door of Poe’s room, where they have been sleeping on the floor so that Chewbacca can have the guest bedchamber, and opens it.

He sees Rey laying on the blankets on the floor — all pale, naked skin.

Finn yanks the door shut so fast it makes a loud bang.

“What’s wrong?” Poe asks, appearing from another doorway. He’s still in his robe.

“Wow, Finn,” he says. “No shirt? How scandalous.”

He stays frozen in place, his hand still on the door handle. His skin sweats against the metal.

“I need to go in there to get my clothes,” Poe says, moving right up against Finn’s side. “Do you mind?”

“Yes!” Finn says, his voice cracking. “I mind! Because, uh, Rey is…”

The door gets yanked open from the other side. Rey stands in the opening, still quite naked.

“Wow,” Poe says, and Finn watches his eyebrows shoot up his forehead toward his wet hair.

“What?” Rey asks.

“You are very nude,” he says.

She rolls her eyes at him, perhaps at both of them.

“I heard you talking,” she says. “Come in.”

Poe moves past Finn, who still feels frozen in place despite the horrible heat. After Poe is through the door, Rey grabs Finn’s wrist and yanks him in.

“I thought you said you used to bathe communally,” Rey says. “Why are you being so weird?”

Finn’s tongue stays stuck to the roof of his mouth. The answer feels so obvious he shouldn’t have to say it, should he? Because it’s _Rey_.

Worse, Poe just takes off his robe and Finn hates that he’s already sweating. But Poe pulls out fresh clothes and puts them on. Sighing, Rey follows his example and puts on the bare basics of one of her usual outfits. She doesn’t cover her arms or legs the way she normally does, and Poe rolls the sleeves of his shirt up.

“Now you’re the one who isn’t dressed,” Poe says.

“Fine,” Finn says, with more anger than he really feels.

He steps on his own bedding as he moves to his pack. He grabs a shirt and yanks it over his head before he shoves off his underwear and pants. He dresses as quickly as possible and hopes that neither Rey nor Poe stares at him — the way he stared at them.

Poe’s grandfather has cooked for them; another feast of foods that Finn has never heard of seasoned with spices he could have never conceived of when he was living on synthsust.

He eats until his stomach hurts and Rey just keeps eating. At least he talks a little over food, but Rey just eats. Finn mostly listens — apparently Poe hasn’t been home to Yavin 4 in years and his grandparents want to hear all the stories of his time with the Resistance. Apparently he was a pilot for the New Republic before that. And his grandfather keeps saying he’s been flying since he was six years old, which seems outrageous to Finn.

They don’t even let six-year-olds hold the _practice_ blasters in the First Order.

At night, the jungle goes pitch black. From this side of Yavin 4, they can see stars in the gap the house carves in the forest canopy. On the other side, it would just be a view of Yavin at night. The jungle roars with all kinds of hums, whistles, croaks, buzzes, and squeaks. Rey says it’s amazing. Finn thinks it’s kinda scary.

He tries to sleep, but it's so hot and noisy. After laying awake for what feels like more than an hour, Finn gets up to relieve himself. He thinks he's quiet, but when he gets back a small light is on and Rey is sitting on the edge of Poe’s bed.

“Sorry I woke you,” he mumbles.

They sleep in as little clothing as they wear to work on the Millennium Falcon.

“You didn't,” Poe says. “We were just talking.”

Finn hesitates.

“Not about you,” Poe says, which is reassuring until Rey turns to Poe and says, “Yes, it was about him.”

Poe looks at her with one of his eyebrows just a tiny bit higher than the other and his mouth in a flat line of annoyance.

“We were talking about you,” Poe says, to Rey.

“Well, I was talking about Finn,” she says.

“I’m never going to pee again,” Finn says, quietly to himself. “You both can’t be trusted.”

They both look at him.

He goes to his improvised cot made of bedding, which is so close to Rey’s feet. Sleeping between Rey and Poe’s bed in the center of the room had seemed like a very good idea the first night. Now he wishes he wasn’t so exposed. He gets under the blanket and turns his back to them both, waiting to overheat.

Rey’s toes prod him in the back of the thigh, just under his glutes.

“What?” he snaps, twisting around in the blankets to glare at her.

“Get up here,” she says. “We’re talking about you.”

“We are not,” Poe insists.

Finn sighs. Slowly, he pulls the blanket off himself and kicks it away. He takes his time getting to his feet. He still remembers the last serious conversation he had on Poe’s bed — not this bed, obviously, but the humiliation is still raw like a skinned elbow.

“Why can’t you just talk about hyperdrive capacitors or something,” Finn says. He’s tired and sweaty. He’s never been so tired and sweaty.

But he sits on the bed anyway.

“Why would we talk about that?” Rey asks.

Finn just groans.

“We have more important things to talk about,” she says. “Finn, he wants to kiss us and he’s not doing it.”

She says this in the exact same kind of desperate tone that she uses for talking about battle plans and the need to defeat the First Order. Finn is absolutely too tired and sweaty for this conversation. He wipes his forehead and sighs.

“Rey,” Poe says. “I don’t understand why you’re so worked up over this. Besides, you’ve got Finn to kiss.”

“Yes, but I want to kiss you,” she says. “And Finn wants to kiss you. You want to kiss him, you said that you do, and you let me kiss you.”

She takes a deep breath, which Finn knows is a warning. “Why are you denying us? Why are you denying something you want?”

“Rey,” Finn says, because it doesn’t matter. Poe doesn’t need to give reasons or excuses. He’s allowed to make his own choices, even if other people don’t like them. That’s the point. And Finn accepts that his own freedom means that Poe can choose to not be with him, with both of them.

“Look,” Poe says. “You’re young and you’re passionate, and Rey, that’s some of the best stuff about you. You’ve got a great heart, kid. But I’m not really looking to get involved between the two of you, not in the middle of a war.”

“But that’s exactly why you _should_ ,” she insists. “You were there, you sat at his bedside for me, we fought together. And I knew after I kissed you that I would have regretted it forever if I hadn’t. We all could have died or been captured.”

“Or worse,” Finn says.

Her eyes are glossy in the blue light of Poe’s lamp. The end of her nose is really red, too. He reaches out and rubs her back, between her shoulder blades, because seeing Rey upset feels like a blade between the ribs.

“Is that how you feel too, Finn?”

His hand stops moving against Rey’s back.

“Uh,” he says. “Well, I mean.”

And all his thoughts about _freedom_ and _choice_ slip right out of his head.

“You shouldn’t do anything you don’t want to do,” he mumbles.

Poe rubs his face with one hand, then drags it up over his mouth, his nose, his eyes, pushes his hair back off his forehead. It falls back into his face the moment he takes his hand away and sets it back on the bed.

“I don’t know how they did it,” Poe says, so softly that Finn knows he’s not supposed to be able to hear it.

“I do want to do this,” he says. “And I suppose… If those First Order assholes grabbed me tomorrow or if some loose part flew off the Falcon and brained me, I would regret some things.”

Poe sighs.

“C’mere,” he mumbles. He waves his hand and Finn has to do a double take to realize it’s for him and not Rey.

“What?” he asks. A floating, anxious feeling rises in his stomach, like they’re in space and gravity isn’t working the way it’s supposed to. He remembers this feeling, remembers piling all the bravado he could muster over it. Poe’s not scary, he reminds himself. Poe’s not scary. Poe’s not scary. He’s faced off scarier things than Poe.

But Poe just sits up and grabs him, pulls him into a tight hug that puts his mouth right against Finn’s ear. He’s slow to return the hug, feeling just a little bit of confusion. Poe’s skin feels much cooler than Finn’s and it’s nice to hold him.

“I’m sorry,” Poe says, in his ear.

Now Finn’s feeling a little bit more confusion. But it’s still nice to hold Poe.

“What’re you sorry for,” Finn tells him, letting one hand move up to the back of Poe’s neck just because he can put it there.

“Not kissing you when you asked me to,” Poe says.

“Nah,” Finn says. “I was asking in a really stupid way. Besides, you don’t have to kiss me.”

Poe pulls away a little and Finn lets him go, reluctantly.

There’s this way that somehow Poe looks at him, but mostly Finn just sees his eyelashes and a curl of hair that’s fallen over his left eye. But Finn still knows that Poe’s looking into his eyes, or at least looking at his face. His heart beats faster.

“You still need some practice?” Poe asks.

“Nah, man,” Finn says, smirking. His heart is pounding. “I’m like an expert now. I’m practically a Jedi master of kissing.”

Beside him, or behind him, Rey sniffles and punches him light in the back — carefully avoiding anywhere it might actually hurt.

“Really now?” Poe asks. He tilts his chin up a little and leans his head to the side; Finn realizes he’s in the perfect position and it’s very intentional.

“Maybe you should be giving me lessons,” Poe says.

Finn leans in and Poe’s lips part for him before he’s even ready for that. Poe’s lips aren’t as soft as Rey’s, and there’s stubble on his chin that rubs against Finn’s own. His upper lip feels every prickle of the stubble above Poe’s lips too. It makes the hairs on the back of Finn’s neck stand on end.

Poe allows himself to be kissed, like an invitation for Finn to do whatever he wants. He can taste the wine Poe had with dinner at the back of his tongue and there’s grit on his teeth from the powder he uses to clean them. Finn kisses Poe deeper and deeper, makes their mouths fit together until he’s breathing the air out of Finn’s lungs.

Poe’s fingers curl on the back of Finn’s shirt and the fabric slides up his sweaty back.

He picks his knee up and moves it onto the bed, aiming to push Poe down onto his bed or climb into his lap.

Instead Rey’s hand comes down on his leg, strong enough to stop him.

He pulls back from the kiss with a sudden jolt.

“Why’d you stop?” Poe asks, his chest rising and falling rapidly.

“So I can join in,” Rey says.

Finn looks at her and they both climb into bed with Poe, together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next part would have adult content. Not sure if I should make it a chapter or a separate fic?


	4. Culmination

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poe takes them out to one of his favorite childhood spots. It's very romantic, but Finn and Rey do all the seducing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Raised the rating. This is the sex part.

Being home feels like a dream, but Poe knows it’s rapidly ending. Chewbacca’s wounds have healed. The Falcon and the full compliment of X-Wings and A-Wings have been repaired. The new Resistance base is already populated. General Leia Organa has given twenty-hours notice. His time left on Yavin 4 can be measured in minutes.

He spends the morning with his grandfather, cooking the foods his father taught him how to make while his grandfather makes all his mother’s favorites that are Poe’s favorites too. Everything gets double-wrapped and sealed in the toughest cooler box they own.

“Your Nane ordered that from one of her holo-vid programs,” he says. “You should ask her what she paid for it, she’s very proud.”

With the food packed, Poe goes out to where the Millennium Falcon is parked beside the massive Jedi tree in his front yard. He still wants to pinch himself when he sees it there.

“Hey!” he shouts. “Do you have any rope in there?”

Chewie roars back at him and he can hear Rey groan. “I’m looking, I’m looking!”

“How much rope do you need?” she sticks her head out of the ship’s belly.

“Like ten meters?” he says, shrugging.

Rey makes a face at him before disappearing into the ship again.

“What do you need ten meters of rope for?” Finn asks.

Poe just turns and grins at him, maybe waggles his eyebrows a little bit. Finn scowls, because he has no sense of adventure or surprise.

“Is that lunch?” Rey asks, carrying the rope over to him.

“Yeah,” Poe says. “We’re going to go eat on the beach.”

Rey’s face lights up, as he knew it would. Food and nature and a giant body of water? He really knows how to please a girl. As long as that girl is Rey. Other girls he can think of — Karé Kun or Testor, for example — are a little harder to please.

Actually, most people Poe can think of would probably balk at the thought of hiking through so many kilometers of jungle, but Rey and Poe talk excitedly about all the new _things_ they see.

“What’s that?” Rey asks, of nearly every flower.

“What is _that_?” Finn asks about the few creatures that don’t flee their stomping through the jungle.

“It’s a woolamander,” Poe tells him. “And it’s sleeping. They’re nocturnal.”

“Oh, is that a baby it’s holding?” Rey asks. “What’s a baby woolamander called?”

Poe thinks for a moment. “I think it’s just a baby woolamander.”

There’s not much beach at the beach, just the sudden drop off where the water has eaten away the land to nothing but the hanging roots of trees. Soft, sandy soil streaked with the red of clay quickly gives way to the green water.

“Wow,” Rey says, with reverence in her voice.

Poe’s not sure if the water is a sea or just a very large lake, but it goes all the way to the horizon.

“Can we swim in it?” she asks.

“Don’t you want to eat first?” Poe asks her, and it looks like a true struggle is going on inside Rey’s head.

“I want to eat first,” Finn says. “Here, gimme that.”

They settle on the edge, in as clear a space as they can find. Poe leans against a damp tree trunk and digs into his food.

“So we’re leaving after this?” Finn asks.

“Yeah,” Poe says. “That’s why I wanted to bring you here, it’s one of my favorite spots.”

He smiles at Poe, then looks out at the water.

“Glad they taught us how to swim in training,” he says. “I mean, it was a survival skill, but it’s actually kinda fun.”

“I think flying’s better,” Poe says, “but I grew up here, so I swam maybe as often as I went up in a ship.”

Finn shakes his head. “Yeah, man, I wasn’t saying swimming compared to _flying_ at all.”

The conversation lulls as they eat — except from Rey, who doesn’t spare a breath for words when there’s food at hand.

“Hiking back is gonna suck in wet clothes,” Finn says. “We used to do this drill where you went out and jumped in a lake for a couple minutes then had to hike back to camp and not freeze to death.”

“They wouldn’t have actually let you freeze to death, would they?” Poe asks.

Finn shrugs. “I never found out.”

Poe makes a face, slightly put off the food in his hands.

Rey pauses and wipes her mouth. Then, surprisingly, she asks a question. “Why would your clothes be wet?”

“Uh,” Finn starts. “Because I’m going swimming.”

She raises an eyebrow at him, which Poe knows she picked up from him. “Why are you going to swim in your clothes?”

“You’re not going to?” Finn asks. “But Poe didn’t tell us we’d be going to the water until the last minutes. Did you bring something else to wear?”

Rey shrugs. “Skin dries much faster than fabric.”

Finn sighs and says to himself, “Of course.”

The food in his hand may not be particularly appetizing anymore, but it makes great cover for hiding Poe’s smile.

“What is it about growing up on Jakku that makes you want to be naked all the time?”

“It’s not that I want to be naked, necessarily, it’s just that it’s sensible not to wear clothes sometimes. On Jakku it was rarely sensible to be nude. But here? It’s too hot for clothes.”

“Yeah, but there’s other people around,” Finn says. “And wookies! And droids! I don’t want BB-8 to see me naked.”

Rey snorts. “Well that hardly matters now, it’s just us.”

“And the woolamanders!”

Her eyes roll back up under her eyelids so hard her that Poe has to clap his hand over his mouth to stop from laughing out loud.

Rey has a few more bites, then wipes her mouth on the back of her hand. There’s still food at the corner of her mouth and a streak of chile sauce on her cheek, which Poe finds charming. He wants to kiss it off her face. He knows that kissing her right now would make his lips and tongue burn, like the best food should.

Then she sweeps off her shirt and begins to unwind the bandeau around her breasts.

“Walk home in your wet clothes if you want to,” she says. “I’m going swimming.”

Then she stands up and strips off her leggings as well. Poe catches Finn looking away, which he’d barely notice because he’s staring. The light of Yavin’s sun has added to the freckles on her shoulders, but so much of her is still very pale skin over skinny limbs made of all muscle. Poe knows for a fact that she could lift him up in one hand — without the Force.

But she skips away and hops, very daintily, into the water.

“It’s so warm!” she cries, delighted.

“That’s so unfair,” Finn says, and Poe knows exactly what he means.

“Want to help me set something up?” Poe asks.

Finn’s eyes narrow. “Do I have to take my clothes off?”

“No,” Poe tells him, “I’d actually recommend they stay on.”

“That’s rare.” But Finn shrugs and agrees, so they pack up what’s left of the food and Poe grabs the rope.

“See that branch?” he says, pointing to a tree limb that overhangs the water’s edge. The remnants of a rope still blow in the breeze, nearly indistinguishable from the long tendrils of moss all around.

“Yeah,” Finn says.

“I gotta get up there without breaking my neck,” Poe says.

“Man, I gotchu,” Finn says. “I’ll do it.”

“I should do it,” Poe says. “I need to tie this up there strong enough to hold our weight.”

Finn laughs. “I was top in my class for knot-tying.”

“Well, then,” Poe says, holding out the rope. “Be my guest, Mr. Top In Class.”

He winks at Finn just to watch him choke on his own laughter.

Honestly, Finn looks too big to be clambering up a tree and lying on that long bough to tie a knot, but Poe supposes that Finn’s not any taller than he is. But he certainly feels a lot heavier, Poe’s learned in the last few days.

It’s been… An experience. He wonders if his grandparents know. The thought that they probably assumed as much about Poe’s relationship with Rey and Finn when he brought them home like this makes his ears feel hot.

He doesn’t quite know what’s going on or where this is going. Some part of him only feels afraid — of death, of becoming his father or, worse, like General Organa. Because that’s what war does to people. But above him, Finn shimmies backwards on a tree branch and, below him, Rey slaps her arms down on the water trying to splash him.

“If I fall in I’m gonna make you wear my wet clothes back to Poe’s house!”

“What are you going to wear then? Huh? Huh?”

“I’ll wear your clothes!”

They’re so young, but nothing Poe has suffered could ever compare to their lives. He knows. He holds that in his heart somewhere between his losses and his victories.

With familiar motions, Poe unrolls his sleeves and pulls his shirt off. Finn comes down from the tree with a thud that shakes the sandy, root-woven soil and rattles the other trees. Birds and bugs take flight all around them.

“Sorry,” Finn says, ducking his head.

Poe tips his head back when he laughs, his shirt still caught on his forearms.

Despite all his protests, Finn takes his clothes off too.

“Rey,” Poe says, “can you toss me the end of the rope?”

She peeks at him from the surface of the water, her wet hair looking like some kind of plant under the green water. She blows some bubbles at him then stands up, water pouring down her and shining in the sun.

“Here,” she says, lobbing the rope through the air. He catches it and pulls it taut.

“Nice knot,” he tells Finn, then he takes a few steps back and makes a run for it.

Poe pulls his knees up and hopes he’s swinging himself out far enough not to break his neck in the water. For a moment, his heart lifts in his chest because he’s young again and flying.

The moment is too brief. He lets go and a second later he’s just falling. Green water gets up his nose, in his mouth, in his eyes, in his ears. He lets himself sink until his feet touch the soft, sandy bottom. Then he pushes up.

“That,” Rey says, staring at him, “was so _cool_!”

“I wanna do it!”

She climbs back out of the water and scampers up the tree, which is not at all what Poe did.

“What are you—” Finn starts to ask.

He doesn’t even get a chance, because Rey grabs the rope then drops down onto it and swings out farther than Poe could have hoped to get. She throws her body out into the air over the water like she knows what she’s doing.

The huge splash she makes when she hits the water gets in Poe’s eyes and mouth too.

“You’ve both got a screw loose or something,” Finn says, standing on the shore with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Come on!” Poe says.

He wades over to the rope and grabs it to swing towards Finn. On the first swing, Finn doesn’t even reach out. But Rey grabs the rope next and flings it at Finn’s face as hard as she can. He grabs it with an offended squawk, like a mynock.

With both hands, he takes the rope, then takes a small step backwards. His swing is not as practiced as Poe’s or as acrobatic as Rey’s. Finn just slowly eases out over the water.

“What do I do?” he calls.

“Let go!” Rey shouts.

Poe paddles backwards to get out of the way.

Finn drops like a stone, no, like a boulder. The wave actually knocks Poe off his feet and he nearly sinks. But then Finn comes up flailing and whooping.

“I’m gonna try that again,” he declares and heads back to the water’s edge.

The second time is a proper swing and jump, but the splash is no smaller. Poe digs his heels in and doesn’t let himself be bowled over.

“Was that good?” he asks. “Should I go again?”

“Well, I’m impressed,” Poe says, “but if you want.”

They swim and splash each other, occasionally climbing out of the water just to use the rope to throw themselves back in. Rey is, by far, the best at it. She even manages a mid-air somersault on one jump.

Finn stares at her with his mouth hanging open.

Poe lays on his back after a while and puts his hands behind his head, letting the water hold him up. Rey and Finn’s conversation becomes a cheerful smear of noise over the sound of moving water. Below him, the water is cool. Above him, the sun is warm.

He even closes his eyes.

That was a mistake, because no short time later something pinches him somewhere _very_ sensitive. Poe yelps and throws his arms and legs in every direction. He sinks, of course, because he folds himself in half and suddenly he’s not so buoyant.

To his right, holding their arms up to shield from splashes and laughing hysterically, are Rey and Finn.

“It was her idea,” Finn says, still laughing.

Rey beams with what Poe guesses is pride at that.

“That hurt!” Poe says, even though it really didn’t.

“No it didn’t!” Rey protests.

“I’m going to get you back,” he says, then lunges in the water.

She shrieks and turns away, but he catches up with her. He grabs her from behind and tries to pick her up, her legs kicking and her whole body shaking with laughter. They tip backwards and then roll. Rey shoves him away for a moment, then throws herself on him and shoves his head underwater.

When he kicks away from her in the water, she follows him.

“I’ll never give up,” he warns her.

“Me neither,” she says, then she grabs him.

Poe tries to turn his whole body away from her and her mouth hits the corner of his jaw. Her arms are vise-tight around him and Poe relaxes into it.

“It seems my opponent has shifted tactics,” he says.

He looks at her and she smiles at him, closed mouth like she’s trying to restrain it. His hands touch her naked back as he leans in and presses his mouth to hers. Rey’s lips taste like the water around them, but when she opens her mouth and kisses him back there’s still chile sauce on her tongue. It’s so faint, but Poe kisses her with a certain kind of hunger and he finds it.

She loosens her hold on him and he can move his arms again, to put one around her waist and move the other up to touch the loose wet strands of her hair. He pushes them off her forehead and runs his fingers down the shape of her cheek, her jaw.

When she pulls away, she doesn’t go far. Rey keeps her lips so close to Poe’s mouth that they’re still touching. He breathes in as she exhales.

“Uhm,” Finn says.

Poe looks out of the corner of his eye and he recognizes everything about Finn’s expression and posture. The water isn’t clear enough for him to see anything, but Finn’s hands are obviously held over his crotch under the water.

“C’mere,” Poe says. He barely moves his hand away from Rey’s cheek as he crooks two fingers at Finn.

She slips out of his arms when Finn gets closer, goes out to greet him. She takes his hands and he looks so embarrassed, but he doesn’t even hesitate.

“You look so good,” he tells her.

“So do you,” she says.

Poe watches them kiss each other, with so much sweetness. The water makes their skin glitter in the sun. Finn holds Rey by the back of her shoulders and she has both her arms around his neck. Poe watches the muscles in her back shift under her skin as she holds herself up. Finn keeps moving, bringing them both closer and closer to Poe. He moves so he can see them both, so he can watch Rey push her tongue against Finn’s lips and see their chins bump into each other.

He wants to touch them, but the view is so nice.

Wading forward, Poe tries not to be sneaky. He doesn’t want to interrupt them, but he doesn’t want it to be a surprise when he brushes his fingers against Finn’s arm. He’s not sure where he fits, how he fits here with the two of them. But pressing himself against Finn’s back seems like a good place to be. He already kissed Rey, now he wants to kiss Finn. His mouth is already occupied, so Poe presses his lips to the back of Finn’s neck and touches the edges of his thick, raised scar with reverent fingertips.

“Oh,” Finn says, and Poe didn’t mean to interrupt their kissing, but Finn turns into his arms and kisses him. He feels Rey’s hands on his sides and Finn’s hands on his back.

“Hi Poe,” Finn says, pulling back and sighing against Poe’s mouth in a way that makes his heart ache.

They are very naked and Finn holds him close enough that Finn’s cock pushes against Poe’s thigh and the side of his hip.

“Hi Finn,” he replies. He has to smile, looking at Finn so close to his face that it makes them both cross-eyed.

Things seem to be going a little fast all of a sudden. Finn and Rey are young, he reminds himself. They are so young.

Finn kisses him again, deeper this time, tasting the inside of Poe’s mouth and leaving him a little breathless. He pulls his arms tight around Poe, too, pulls him flush against himself. Poe’s leg fits easily between Finn’s and Finn grinds against him in a way that’s all smooth skin on skin because of the water all around them.

Poe lets himself enjoy the feeling of Finn’s body sliding against him. He gets hard from it and moans a little into Finn’s mouth because he just can’t help himself. Rey’s hands grab him by the ass and grind him up against Finn, which is unfair.

“I want Poe in the middle,” she says, an impish little whisper from over Finn’s shoulder.

Finn makes a noise Poe can feel with his tongue, then pulls away with a gasping breath.

“Alright,” he says. “You wanna be in the middle?”

“Sure,” Poe says. He expects that Rey will just move around to his back, but instead Finn picks him up and turns them both around. Off his feet, Poe is easy for them both to move and he just lets them. Rey takes his arms; Finn holds his waist. There’s hands all over him, the water between their skin making everything dreamlike and smooth.

“Can I touch you?” Rey asks when he’s turned around to face her.

“Go ahead,” Poe says. “Whatever you want.”

She wrinkles her brow at him. “I would rather ask.”

When Rey touches him, there’s no hesitation. Her hand is smaller than his, but it’s calloused in a way that feels too good. She has a hell of a grip, too.

“Oh shit,” Poe says, which is very articulate.

“Is that too much?” she asks, searching his face with little movements of her eyes back and forth, up and down. He stares right at her and he can’t talk, really. Finn kisses his ear and presses against his back. Whether he means for it or not, Finn’s dick presses right into the cleft of Poe’s ass. In that moment, Poe resolves that none of them can die before he’s had it inside him at least once. But not right now.

Rey’s mouth comes close to his, until their lips aren’t quite touching.

“Sorry,” Finn says in his ear, “if I’m getting carried away.”

“No, please,” Poe tells him, his tongue tripping over his words. “Get carried away.”

Rey moves close enough for her legs to be touching Poe’s and he’s not sure how they aren’t all standing on each other’s toes they’re so close to him. He’s surrounded more by hands and limbs and so much skin than he is by water at this point.

“You can touch me too,” Rey says, her lips moving right against his. “If you want.”

“Yeah,” Poe says. “I’d like that.”

He puts a hand over her small breast, which is mostly muscle. Her nipple is small and tight under his thumb. She inhales sharply, the faintest little sound, when he touches her. Finn puts a hand over Poe’s chest and gropes him slowly, imitating Poe. He’s never been touched so gently this way, the way Finn touches him. He’s being petted, really, while Rey touches him with a mission.

He tries to touch her like he thinks a lover should, because she’s so beautiful and there’s power in every inch of her. Under the water, her legs are so smooth, still skinny from years without enough to eat and all muscle from working for every bite she got. Poe has never touched someone like Rey. He’s never wanted to make someone feel _good_ the way he wants to make the two of them feel good, because they haven’t had enough good in their lives.

At first, he tries to go slow. He runs his fingers up between her legs, touching her with just his fingertips against the edge of her lips. When he presses in a little, toward the front, he can feel the difference between the water and how wet she is. He touches her gently, too, because he can’t see what he’s doing and he wants to be sure he’s touching her right. It’s a little more complicated with girls.

Apparently impatient, Rey puts her hand over his and pushes his fingers into place where she wants them.

Finn’s hand closes over Rey’s hand on his dick.

Poe lets Rey move his hand, but once he feels what she wants, he takes a little more initiative. Her clit is hard between two of his fingers, but she doesn’t want him to touch it directly — instead pushing his fingers down hard on either side. He presses hard enough to feel bone under sensitive skin and she chokes and gasps while kissing him.

Behind him, Finn presses harder and moves faster. He groans into Poe’s ear.

Poe knows, or guesses, that he’s come because he grabs onto him hard and shakes all over. In his ear, Poe can hear how hard Finn clenches his jaw to keep from making another sound. His hand around the shaft of Poe’s dick goes painfully tight but Poe tries not to take it out on Rey.

Finn sighs into his ear and loosens his grip on Poe’s dick. He swallows. It feels really good, both of them touching him while they press against the length of his body. He leans his head back against Finn’s shoulder and groans.

Rey bites at his exposed throat.

“Ah!” he says. “Rey!”

She kisses him again, gently.

“No, it’s good,” he says. “You can bite me.”

Her teeth catch the skin of his throat hard enough, he knows it’ll bruise. Especially when she keeps at it. His skin feels hot. Rey and Finn both move their hands on his dick.

“You make a great team,” he says, panting. “Really.”

Against the side of his neck, Finn smiles. Rey giggles, but doesn’t stop biting him.

“Shit,” he says, because it’s so good. Finn uses both hands, one on the shaft and the other cupping Poe’s balls tight enough that all he can feel is body heat. Rey teases the head, her hand strong and a little rough. When Poe tries to thrust forward against her, Finn holds him back. Poe groans.

His hand against Rey starts to shake; he can’t keep up with her.

“Oh shit,” he gasps. “Rey, I’m going to… It’s so good.”

He groans again, loud and unabashed. His whole chest shakes, like laughter, and he curls his toes down into the sand hard enough to give himself a spasm.

“Rey,” he says. “Finn. Both of you.”

He swallows. His hand has gone still against Rey and he feels bad about that, really he does.

“You’re fun to listen to,” she says. “Finn never makes noises like that.”

“Neither do you,” Finn says.

Finn nuzzles his face against Poe’s neck, that’s the only word for it. Poe feels like he could collapse on both of them and they’d easily hold him up. So he does, just a little.

“Finn,” Rey says. “I need your help. I think we’ve expended Poe.”

“I’m fine,” Poe says, softly. “I’m fine.”

He slides his fingers against her again, not as hard as he could, but some movement. She’s so slick and Poe’s fingers slide further back than he intends, not into her but close.

Rey makes a very small sound, like surprise.

“You can do that,” she says. “I like it.”

So Poe keeps his hand where it is. He doesn’t think it’s necessarily the best idea to try to touch her deeply, not in this water. He wouldn’t want anyone putting their fingers inside him here. But he can grind his hand against her like this and give his fingers a little bit of a rest. Rey pushes her hips against his hand hard enough for him to feel it in his wrist.

“Keep going,” she says.

“Please.”

Finn’s hand comes up against Poe’s, bracing him. Rey opens her mouth against Poe’s neck and then sinks her head to his shoulder. She gasps, but she is so quiet. Her shoulders shake. She moves her hips against his hand, against Finn and him both, with a strength that leaves Poe slightly breathless.

She turns the placid, green water around them into a storm.

Her face lifts up and Poe sees her for a moment, flushed and grimacing. She’s beautiful and he can’t look away from her. She pants for a moment, which is fair because Poe’s still trying to catch his breath.

“Let’s do that again,” she says.

“What?” Poe says.

“Do you want to?” she asks.

“Oh, yeah,” Finn says. “ _Yeah_.”

Poe feels light-headed, and his dick definitely wants him to take a nap.

“We still have to hike back,” Poe says.

“So?” Rey says.

“I still need to hike back,” he says. “And then sleep. We fly out soon.”

Too soon, he thinks.

Against his chest, Rey heaves a huge sigh. “I suppose.”

“At least we don’t have to clean ourselves up,” Finn says.

“Yes,” Rey says. “Using the fresher after each time seems like a waste of water.”

“Yeah,” Poe says, sleepily, “you can waste a lot of water trying to use the fresher with someone you’d rather be doing other things with.”

“Oh,” Rey says. “We hadn’t thought of that.”

Finn hums a little. “It could be like this, easier to clean up if we did things in there.”

“But wasteful,” Rey says.

“But fun!” Finn insists.

Rey makes a little snort and starts to back away from Poe. He realizes just how much of his weight they are holding up when he slumps forward. He stumbles to his feet.

“I think I need to sit for a while,” he says. “And dry off.”

Rey kisses his forehead, while Finn holds him up with both his strong arms around Poe’s chest. “Good idea.”

**Author's Note:**

> you can find me at jeffgoldblumsmulletinthe90s.tumblr.com


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